Setu tells manager to look for new club

Lagi Setu has given his manager the go-ahead to begin looking for a club in 2013, and there is not expected to be any shortage of interest in the former Junior Kangaroos representative.

While none of the handful of players who have left the game to take on a Mormon mission have made successful returns, Setu’s agent Isaac Moses said he was confident the 23-year-old back-rower would be an exception.

“If anyone can do it, it is Lagi,” Moses said. “Lagi has always been a person who knows what he wants. He has said to me that he is ready to start playing again when he gets back.

As the captain of Ipswich Grammar School’s First XV, Setu showed a strong will at a young age as his main interest was acting, and few rugby players mix with drama students at high school.

He also had to forfeit his place on the 2005 Australian Schoolboys rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland after signing with the St George Illawarra Dragons.

Among the players on that tour were Kurtley Beale, Quade Cooper, David Pocock and Lachlan Turner.

“He is a wonderful kid,” said Moses, who was surprised to learn that the Herald had interviewed Setu. “When Lagi knows what he wants he just does it. He doesn’t change for anyone else, no matter who that is.

“He wants to play when he comes back, and I have got no doubt that he will do that. It takes a special kid to walk away like he did and like Will Hopoate is going to. But the kids who can do that are comfortable with themselves, and they are the kids that can do anything.”